lake Michigan shore line/Mason county | I am sorry I am late to this thread, but here it goes. I am not a BTO with deep pockets, , but farm to much to be a hobbie. I have kept a few family cows around for almost 30 years. Most of that time I hand milked. NOTHING is cleaner, or easier than Hand milking, If the cow is clean and the barn is also. I have had cows that would allow me to milk them in a pasture and just stand for me. Of course this was done in the summer on nice calm days. A nice 2 gallon stainless bucket with matching lid works good. A small plastic 5 qt. bucket with warm wash water and rag. Very simple, very easy to clean up. The stainless bucket has a walmart bag pulled over the outside of it until I was finished milking and headed to the house. This way the bucket was clean and no poo on the bottom. In the house sink I would have a stainless strainer with a filter waiting to pour strait into 2 qt. glass jugs. I would double strain all milk. I would rinse the bucket, lid, strainer and any empty glass jars with soapy bleach water then rinse and place them in a drying rack. Very little work. Thats if you have one nice family cow. If you move up to 2-3 I used Delaval Buckets. More things to wash, but they will hold 4-5 gallons, so two cows worth. I have two old stansions from my Great Grandmas barn that I milk in. while one is milking I can be washing or turning out in the other. Everything is clumsy until they learn their drill. I would dump the first bucket filled into my stainless bucket with walmart sleeve for house milk. Then milk the rest of the cows into plastic 5 gallon buckets for calf or pig milk. I would suck some clean water through the inflations after dumping the last milk. Then head to the house with a milker and empty plastic 5qt pail in one hand, 2 gallon stainless bucket with house milk in the other. Step inside the the mud room, slide the wash bucket under the bench, set the milker down. Strain the milk, and wash up the bucket and jars. Take the unit to the basement to be washed. Simple, but not up to the BTOs standards I am sure. I made sure my children got fresh whole milk while they were young. I believe it to be very healthy and safe. Keep every thing simple. You will be happy you did. |
Dairy guys?
